Special dates

Holiday Time, Long Weekend & Holiday Mood

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1️⃣ Warm-up (Conversation)

  • Do you like holidays?
  • How do you feel before a holiday?
  • What are your plans for Carnival?

2️⃣ Vocabulary

📅 Holiday × Vacation (US × UK)

  • Holiday
    • US English → feriado / período curto de folga
    • British English → férias / feriado / viagens de férias
  • Vacation
    • US English → férias (período mais longo)
    • British English → menos comum

📌 Exemplos:

  • Next week is a holiday.
  • Carnival is a holiday in Brazil.
  • We take our vacation once a year.

🗓️ Long weekend

Long weekend = feriado prolongado (3 ou 4 dias)

  • Carnival is a long weekend in Brazil.
  • We have a long weekend next week.
  • I’m traveling on the long weekend.

Common use:

  • on the long weekend
  • during the long weekend

💰 / ⏰ Spend

Spend = passar (tempo) / gastar (dinheiro)

  • I spend time with my family.
  • I want to spend the holiday at home.
  • I don’t want to spend a lot of money.

Structure:

  • spend + the holiday / the long weekend
  • spend + time / money

😌 Holiday mood

Holiday mood = para falar de estado emocional, clima ou atmosfera

👉 in a holiday mood

  • I’m already in a holiday mood.
  • Everyone is in a holiday mood.

❌ on a holiday mood
❌ at a holiday mood

✔️ IN a holiday mood

More examples with IN

  • in a good mood
  • in a bad mood
  • in a relaxed mood
  • in the mood to travel

📅 Workday

  • Workday = dia de trabalho

📌 Exemplos:

  • Monday is a workday.
  • Holidays are not workdays.

3️⃣ Model Sentences

  • Next week is Carnival holiday.
  • I’m already in a holiday mood.
  • I want to spend the long weekend resting.
  • Some people travel on holidays.
  • I prefer to stay home during Carnival.

4️⃣ Grammar Focus (Going to)

We use going to for plans and intentions:

  • I’m going to spend the holiday with my family.

5️⃣ Practice

📝 Exercise 1 – Complete with IN, HOLIDAY, VACATION or LONG WEEKEND:

  1. I’m ___ a holiday mood.
  2. We have a ___ because Carnival is on Monday.
  3. In the US, people say ___ instead of holiday.
  4. I’m going to spend the ___ at home.
  5. Everyone is ___ a relaxed mood this week.

📝 Exercise 2 – Complete the sentences

  1. Next week is a __________.
  2. Carnival is a __________ weekend.
  3. I want to __________ the holiday at home.
  4. I’m already in a holiday __________.
  5. I’m on __________ in July for two weeks.

🗣️ Exercise 3 – Personal answers

Answer with complete sentences:

  1. How do you usually spend holidays?
  2. Are you in a holiday mood now?
  3. What are your plans for the long weekend?

🗝️ Answer Key

Exercise 1

  1. in
  2. long weekend
  3. vacation
  4. holiday / long weekend
  5. in

Exercise 2

  1. holiday
  2. long
  3. spend
  4. mood
  5. vacation (US) / holiday (UK)

Holidays are not about doing more — they’re about feeling better.

Corpus Christi: the Body of Christ we receive and are called to become. Is it a long weekend for you?

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Carefully listen to the beautiful message below. Take notes of the new words or the entire sentences, and notice pronunciation.

Então, Corpus Christi será um feriadão, um feriado prolongado para você? Sabe como dizer isso em inglês?

Quando um feriado cai próximo ao final de semana, e empresas ou escolas fazem um recesso na quinta e sexta, ou segunda e terça, chamamos em inglês de long weekend.

Você pode dizer também, a three-day weekend, quando o feriado é na sexta ou na segunda, ou a four-day weekend, se é na quinta, com recesso na sexta. 

E as perguntas mais comuns antes de um feriado prolongado são: 

Como será seu feriadão? Como/Onde você passará o feriadão? O que você fará neste feriado prolongado? Você tem planos para o feriado?

  • How is your long weekend going to be?
  • How/Where are you going to spend your three-day weekend?
  • What are you going to do this long weekend?
  • Do you have any plans for the holiday?

Agora que tal usar estas perguntas juntamente com o vocabulário para este feriado de Corpus Christi?

Então complete as frases com as palavras ou expressões que faltam:

1- Thursday is a__________________.  It’s _____________________. (Quinta-feira é feriado. É…).

2- It’s _________________________ for me.  (É/não é um feriadão/feriado de quatro dias para mim.)

3- There are many_______________________in Brazil.  (Há muitos feriados cristãos no Brasil.)

4- Corpus Christi always __________________ a Thursday.  (Corpus Christi sempre cai em uma   quinta-feira.)

5- I’m in a__________________.  (Estou em clima de feriado.)

6- We’re ____________________ Corpus Christi at/in _____________________.  (Passaremos Corpus Christi……)

Confira suas respostas: 1 – holiday/Corpus Christi; 2 – long weekend/a four-day weekend; 3 – Christian holidays; 4- falls on; 5 – holiday mood; 6 – spend.

Então:

  • Enjoy your holiday! Aproveite/curta seu feriado!
  • Have a great holiday! Tenha um ótimo feriado!

Quer mais? Clique aqui.

Carnival – Vocabulary

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Carnival in Brazil is part of Brazilian culture and starts on the Friday before Ash Wednesday and ends on Ash Wednesday at noon. 

It’s a big celebration of the food and pleasures one has to give up during Lent. 

Because the celebrations happen during Brazil’s summer, the ambiance is perfect for massive parties. There is even a common saying in Brazil that “the year starts only after Carnival,” referring to the number of people that take their holidays between New Year’s and Carnival, a national holiday.

How about learning the main words about carnival in English? Listen to pronunciation and note the words, not on the lists below.

Vocabulário geral

EnglishPortuguês
Street CarnivalCarnaval de rua
Samba schools paradeDesfile das escolas de samba
CostumesFantasias
RevelerFolião
Carnival blocksBlocos de Carnaval
Carnival warm-upEsquenta de Carnaval
CostumeFantasia
SequinLantejoula
FeathersPenas

Nas escolas de samba

EnglishPortuguês
ChoreographyCoreografia
SambadromeSambódromo
Flag bearerPorta-bandeira
Drum sectionAla da bateria
Drum section queenRainha da bateria
FloatsCarros alegóricos
Revelers / ParadersParticipantes ou público dos desfiles
Wing / SectionAla
SuitesCamarotes
RehearsalsEnsaios
Access groupGrupo de acesso
Special groupGrupo especial
Parade of championsDesfile das campeãs

Extra

  • Band on a float – Trio elétrico
  • Carnival ball – Baile de Carnaval
  • Carnival marchs – Marchinhas de Carnaval
  • Commission of front – Comissão de frente
  • Revelry – Folia
  • Samba schools rehersals – Ensaios das escolas de samba
  • Samba-plot/story – Samba–enredo

Sobre as datas

EnglishPortuguês
HolidayFeriado
Mardi Gras / Fat TuesdayTerça-feira de Carnaval
Ash WednesdayQuarta-feira de Cinzas
LentQuaresma

Verbos úteis

EnglishPortuguês
(To) celebrate CarnivalPular Carnaval
(To) dress up asVestir-se de
(To) paradeDesfilar
(To) sambaSambar

Frases úteis

  • Where are you celebrating the carnival? Onde você vai pular o carnaval?
  • Are you going to parade in a street block this year? Você vai desfilar em algum bloco de rua esse ano?
  • The revelers of the drum section are wearing beautiful costumes! Os foliões da ala de bateria estão usando fantasias lindas!
  • Let’s go to the bleachers to watch the parade of champions. Vamos para as arquibancadas para vermos o desfile das campeãs.

Now, marchinhas em inglês

Have fun!

Do you celebrate Carnival?

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The world’s biggest carnival celebrations happen in Brazil. In Rio and São Paulo, the samba schools (escolas de samba) offer the famous parades (desfiles) in the Sambódromo, with thousands of members and spectacularly decorated floats (carros alegóricos) demonstrating specific themes.

During carnival, groups of dancers and street bands called blocks (blocos) parade the streets with many of the revelers (foliões) wearing costumes (fantasias).

Another popular feature of carnival, especially in Salvador, is the trio elétrico – band on a float, a huge truck, adapted with giant speakers and a stage on top, where musicians and singers perform to the delight of thousands of fans who follow the truck as it goes slowly through the streets.

Throughout the country, many clubs also arrange carnival balls (bailes).

The state of Pernambuco is famous for its carnival celebrations and the styles of music and dancing (Frevo and Maracatu). According to The Guinness Book of Records, Recife hosts the largest carnival parade in the world, known as the Galo da Madrugada – Lit. the cock or rooster (US) at daybreak, which takes place in the center of Recife on the Saturday of carnival.

Okay, so whether you celebrate carnival (pular o carnaval) by partying noisily or relaxing quietly at home, do what makes you happy!

Source: Break the Branch? Quebrar o Galho – Common, Everyday Words and Phrases in Brazilian Portuguese, de Jack Scholes, Disal Editora, 2008. http://www.teclasap.com.br/como-se-fala-pular-carnaval-em-ingles/

Blumenau’s birthday or anniversary?

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Blumenau is a Brazilian city in the southern state of Santa Catarina, where it’s believed that 30% of the city’s 400,000 residents are of German descent.

Since 1984, Blumenau hosts an Oktoberfest which is seen as the second biggest beer festival in the world, surpassed only by the original festival in Munich.

September 2 was Blumenau’s 172 anniversary.

BUT, BIRTHDAY OR ANNIVERSARY?

Na língua inglesa, essas são as duas palavras a serem usadas quando queremos nos referir à aniversário.

Há um consenso entre os professores de inglês brasileiros, que se for o aniversário de uma pessoa, usamos o substantivo birthday pois, como o próprio nome já diz, refere-se ao dia do nascimento (birth significa “nascimento” e day significa “dia”).

E que usamos anniversary para referir-se à data em que um evento importante aconteceu, como aniversário de casamento, aniversário da cidade, ou a data da fundação de alguma empresa ou instituição. Veja:

Mas nas minhas pesquisas, encontrei diferentes resultados.

Instead of giving rules and exceptions, I’ll show you the result of my search. / Em vez de dar regras e exceções, lhe mostrarei o resultado dela.

Birthday

The anniversary of the birth of a person.

He was in New York to celebrate his 74th birthday.

The date on which someone is born or something is created, more commonly called birthdate or date of birth.

Anniversary

(especially) The date on which a couple married or the date on which a romance began. It also means the celebration which takes place on an anniversary day.

We are celebrating our tenth anniversary today.

Anniversary

A day that is an exact number of years (to the day) since a given significant event occurred. Often preceded by an ordinal number indicating the number of years.

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war.

Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

WVU vigil, other remembrance events planned to mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Birthday and anniversary

The anniversary of the day on which something is created.

Birthday and anniversary

The anniversary of something’s origin or foundation.

The holiday is to celebrate the city anniversary.

The City of Cleveland Orchestra is celebrating its 200th birthday.

Happy 10th birthday: UNU-CRIS – United Nations University

Hats off to Academia Sinica’s Institute of Law on its tenth birthday!

Interestingly, even though we don’t usually refer to birth dates as “anniversaries,” we use the death anniversary when referring to death dates. / Curiosamente, embora geralmente não nos refiramos a datas de nascimento como “anniversary”, usamos “aniversário” de morte quando nos referimos a datas de falecimento.

Remembering dad on his death anniversary is a great agony.

The 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Benjamin Britten.

However, unless you qualify the noun anniversary, it is generally taken to mean a wedding anniversary. If you say, Today is my anniversary, unless the context indicates otherwise, you would be speaking of your wedding anniversary.

For other anniversaries, use a qualifier as well. For your employment, you can say work anniversary.

For anniversaries, such as a nation’s birthday, we use a recognized proper name. For the United States, July 4 refers to as “Independence Day.”

These national anniversaries, celebrated in most countries, are called national days. These are the dates of independence or adoption of a new constitution or form of government. 

Well, I hope this information was of some help to you. At least I’m sure you have no doubts about how to greet someone on their birthday, right? 😉